barnacle

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Any of various marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia that in the adult stage form a hard shell and remain attached to submerged surfaces, such as rocks and ships' bottoms.

n. The barnacle goose.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.

n. The barnacle goose.

n. In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.

n. On printed circuit boards, a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an added resistor or capacitor, subassembly or daughterboard.

n. An instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the nose of a vicious horse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable.

n. A nickname for spectacles.

n. A good job, or snack easily obtained.

v. To connect with or attach.

v. To press close against something.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. Any cirriped crustacean adhering to rocks, floating timber, ships, etc., esp. (a) the sessile species (genus Balanus and allies), and (b) the stalked or goose barnacles (genus Lepas and allies). See cirripedia, and goose barnacle.

n. A bernicle goose.

n. An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him.

n. Spectacles; -- so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To fix or attach, as a barnacle upon the bottom of a ship.

To apply barnacles to: as, to barnacle a horse.

n. A species of wild goose, Anser bernicla or Bernicla leucopsis, also called barnacle-goose or bernacle-goose.

n. A species of stalked cirriped, Lepas anatifera, of the family Lepadidæ, found hanging in clusters by the long peduncle to the bottoms of ships, to floating timber, or to submerged wood of any kind; the goose-mussel, fabled to fall from its support and turn into a goose (see def. 1).

n. Anything resembling a barnacle (in sense 2).

n. A person holding on tenaciously to a place or position; one who is a useless or incompetent fixture in an office or employment; a follower who will not be dismissed or shaken off.

n. [Cf. barnard.] A decoy swindler.

n. A kind of bit or muzzle used to restrain an unruly horse or ass; now (usually in the plural), an instrument consisting of two branches joined at one end with a hinge, placed on a horse's nose to restrain him while being shod, bled, or dressed.

n. Hence An instrument of torture applied in a similar way to persons.

MAX MUELLER38 has suggested that this word was really derived from Hibernicula, the name thus referring to Ireland, where the birds were caught; but common opinion associated the barnacle goose with the shell-fish known as the barnacle (which is found on timber exposed to the sea), supposing that the former was generated out of the latter.

For several centuries there was prevalent over the whole of civilised Europe a most extraordinary superstition concerning the small Arctic bird resembling, but not so large as, the common wild goose, known as the barnacle or bernicle goose.

The bernicle, or brent goose, is interesting from the curious superstition which formerly prevailed respecting it, as it was supposed to have sprung from the shell called the barnacle or lepas, which adheres to the bottoms of ships, and which has a fringe of cirri projecting from between its valves bearing some faint resemblance to the feathers of a bird.

The Barnacle goose or clakis of Willoughby, anas erythropus of Linnaeus, called likewise tree-goose, anciently supposed to be generated from drift wood, or rather from the _lepas anatifera_ or multivalve shell, called barnacle, which is often found on the bottoms of ships.